Episode #24: Breaking Into The Specialty Toy Market with Kimberly Mosley CAE, the President of ASTRA
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The American Specialty Toy Retailing Association aka ASTRA was founded in 1992 by store owners who noticed the value in collaborating in the specialty toy space. A big part of an ASTRA membership is the open and supportive community that it provides. Within this community, you will find the opportunity to connect and learn from buyers, manufacturers, and sales reps through the specialty segment of the toy industry.
In this episode of Making It in The Toy Industry, I chat with Kimberly Mosley CAE, the President of ASTRA, all about the benefits of joining the organization and the specialty toy market. You'll learn the benefits of working closely with independent toy retailers and the value of the support provided by this community.
If you have a toy or game product that might fit into the specialty toy market, then you definitely want to give this episode a listen.
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This episode is brought to you by thetoycoach.com
Learn more about the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association by clicking here or visit www.astratoy.org/
Learn more about the ASTRA Academy by clicking here.
Go to ASTRA Camp by clicking here.
*please note, the discounted membership offer mentioned in this episode is no longer available
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Azhelle 00:00
You're listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, Episode Number 24.
Intro/Outro + Jingle 00:07
Welcome to Making It in The Toy Industry, podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like you know your host Azhelle Wade.
Azhelle 00:17
Hey there. Before we dive in, I wanted to give a quick message to any of you that might be looking for the best trade shows to present your toy product. If you head over to the toy coach comm forward slash Handbook, you're going to find the new toy trade show handbook for toy people. I put together this detailed guide so that you could have all of the information you need before making a decision about which trade show is right for you and your product. Okay, let's dive into today's episode. Hey there toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It in The Toy Industry this week. podcast brought to you by the thetoycoach.com. Now one of the most exciting experience you'll have while working in the toy industry is attending toy fairs and trade shows with your invention or your toy idea. Now there are shows that specialize in babies crafts games, and they're all encompassing shows that hit every category of play, but for a specific market. For today's conversation, we're going to focus on the specialty market and we can't focus on specialty without mentioning Astra Astra as it's known in the industry and that's spelled a s t ra is an acronym for the American specialty toy retailing Association. Now Astra is a nonprofit association that provides education, networking, product sourcing and discounts to grow the specialty toy industry. Astros marketplace and Academy is known as the largest and most welcoming specialty toys trade show and conference in the industry. They draw thousands of toy stores, game stores, hobby stores, museum stores and gift store owners looking for the newest and hottest products. Well this year show is canceled due to COVID-19 in 2021. This trade show will be moved to Minneapolis and be held from June 6 to June 9. Now today I am joined by the president of the organization, Kimberly Mosley. Kim leads the trade association that promotes and strengthens the specialty segment of the toy world. Astros mission is to support a membership of independent retailers, manufacturers and sales representatives to advance industry growth and provide children with healthy high quality and high value toys and play. Welcome to the show. Kim I'm so glad to have you here?
Kimberly 03:01
Well, thank you. Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Azhelle 03:03
Yeah, I'm really excited to tell my listeners more about Astra. The show's history, and especially any new virtual initiatives you might have in the works. So could we start off the conversation just talk about when did Astra begin?
Kimberly 03:21
So Astra has been in existence since 1992. In fact, not that long ago, we celebrated our 25th anniversary as an organization, actually 2025 years 25 years. That's a quite a while. Yeah, we've been around for quite a while our organization was developed by toy store owners that recognize the value of collaborating. So all of that collegiality that helps your business and helps your colleagues business. They decided to make it into a full fledged organization and we've been around since then. It's awesome.
Azhelle 03:59
I actually talked to Mary Kay, a little bit of an mentioned that I might be interviewing you. And she said, Oh, Astra is a great show. And she said that it's just known for being warm and welcoming. And she actually said, it's a great show for anybody just starting out in the industry to consider starting with.
Kimberly 04:17
Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, our, our organization, we believe we think of it as a community. Because there is that collegiality, there's just a lot of friendships, we like to say that maybe the toy industry is about handshakes. But when you come to our show, it's more about hugs. warm, welcoming kind of feeling when you come you you really do find other folks that are facing some of the same challenges you're facing and they're willing to share ideas and insights and even share if they've stepped on a landmine so you can avoid stepping on it. There's a great community of folks with Astra
Azhelle 05:00
That's so great that the industry needs more shows like that. I mean, from what you're saying, it sounds like you help promote a lot of like makers and mentors and companies who are newer to the industry, and maybe have never exhibited at a show before at all. So could you I know my listeners would love to hear more about that. So how do you support makers and new companies, new inventors?
Kimberly 05:23
Sure. So that's, that's really one of our strong areas. You know, sometimes you need to get your product out there, get it, get it some exposure, and through the specialty market is really a great way to do that. Our toy store owners are, we'd like to say their feet on the floor, because they're really down. They're really in the store, interacting with parents interacting with kids. So when your product is being distributed through specialty you can get that real time. real live kind of feedback about your product and we know many small manufacturers and inventors have taken feedback, improve their product, expanded their product line, and then they were ready to maybe branch off into mass market or or something bigger. So yeah, our, our, our industry, our side of the toy industry is a great way to get started and get some much needed information. And then the other thing is, as I was sharing before that are folks they share, they share ideas, they share insights. So if you're a brand new manufacturer, you're not really sure. I don't know about this factory. Is this a good factory, right? How do I get this tested? Or which sales reps are you using you can share all that information with other manufacturers that are part of our community and you'll get some of those answers. You'll you'll learn more about how best to be successful in your business by interacting with other manufacturers that have faced some of those challenges and, and have information for you. That's great.
Azhelle 06:57
Before we get into details, because I want to learn a lot A little bit more about what you were just saying I want to learn more about how your members share information with each other. But before we get deeper first, it'd be helpful for my listeners to just explain what's the difference between these specialty retailers and mass retailers because I don't think everybody listening really has a clear grasp on what the differences there.
Kimberly 07:22
Sure, I'd be happy to explain that in a little bit more detail. So I, I always think of it from the consumers perspective. So a consumer today has many options for how they're going to make a purchase. They may decide to make a purchase through mass market which means they might want to go to Target or Walmart or one of these big box kinds of places and usually if you're shopping for toy, you might go to mass market because you need a toy and you want to get some paper towels--
Azhelle 07:53
...stocking up for Coronavirus.
Kimberly 07:57
I'm gonna go to the big box right got a variety Things that I want to buy, okay, I might go online, you know, consumer can purchase online, I might go online because I need to do it quickly. Like I'm in the middle of working, but I need to buy this toy for birthday parties. I'm just going to quickly go online, purchase it and then get back to work. So online is that convenience factor? And often I'm going to do online because I already know what I want. Like, maybe it's for my niece or nephew. And they already told me this is exactly what I want. Yes. So I can go online, get it done, move on. But a specialty purchase is from an independently owned and operated retailer. So think in terms of your local neighborhood toy store. That's a specialty store is a store that specializes in selling toys and games. So the advantage there is, first of all, it's in your neighborhood, your support supporting your local economy. You're going to get knowledge from those store owners. From the staff that work there, because that's all they sell is toys and games. So if you have questions about whether or not this is an appropriate toy for your niece or nephew, that's who you can ask that question. And you're going to get a unique selection, because those toy store owners are stocking their shelves specifically for their community. And by that, I mean, if I'm a toy store in a rural area, I'm going to have a different selection of toys than I will if I'm in a resort kind of area, or if I'm in an urban area. So big box maybe is stocking their shelves, no matter where they are with the same kinds of products. But a toy store is going to be stocked specific to the community that they serve. So that toy store owner is going to have product carefully selected product for their community. And then the last thing is quality. No toy store owner wants to see an unhappy customer walking back through that door. Right. I know the folks in their community. They know that Moms and dads. There's like I said before their feet on the floor, they know those kiddos. So they don't want to see anyone I'm happy. They're paying a lot of attention to the kinds of products that they're putting on their shelves and making sure that their quality products. So that's the difference between mass market specialty and online retailer.
Azhelle 10:20
Oh, perfect. Thank you. Sure. Now, I already know what their next question is. I know my listeners very well. So I know where their heads are going next. I'm ready. Now they're going to be thinking, Okay, all right. I'm listening. Can I hear you I'm interested in specialty market but I'm working with a factory and I've got mo cues to hit. Do you think that they're taking like thousands of pieces so I can hit my mo Q's with my factories?
Kimberly 10:49
Right? So it's gonna depend of course on the store. What you'll usually what some manufacturers will want to do is work through sales reps. Yes, sales reps are getting To represent that minimum order quantity, yes, Target, they're going to know your target. And they're going to help you identify how best to meet that. Different sales reps sometimes cover different areas. So working with the sales reps, you'll get a gain an understanding of your product or products will work really well in this region, maybe not so well in this region, or will work really well for this type of store, maybe not so much for this type of store. Most of our stores are $1 million, and approximately $1 million in revenues. Okay, great. But we do have some store owners that are much larger than that. You know, we have store owners that own multiple stores, of course. So we know that we've got everything across the board. And we know that manufacturers are there are a wide range of manufacturers as well. We've got some manufacturers that are really just getting started. They're trying To get some product out there, so that they can get some of that feedback I was talking about earlier. Yeah, figure out how to improve the packaging, figure out maybe how to improve the color or the size, get it just right before they start seeking placement with one of these big boxes where they'll have a much larger order. And the flip side of that, yes, you could get a big order with Walmart, but if you lose with a Walmart or Target, but if you lose that order, you've lost the big order with Walmart or Target. So there's some advantages and some disadvantages to having those big orders. Right, exactly. All right. So now my next question is people are going to want to know, how can I join Astra and what does it mean to be a member of Astra Do you have to be a member to attend a trade show? Or can you just to attend the trade show or, and and also, what does membership include? You can Certainly attend our show is a non member, you can certainly participate in our education as a non member, there is a discount for members. But if you want to test the waters, you certainly can do that as a non member. As a matter of fact, right now we're running a special we're calling it a trial membership, you can join for free for two months. And we're doing that because of COVID-19. Because we know that there are retailers out there and and folks on the specialty side that really need the camaraderie we were talking about before they really need to be able to check in with one another. So we want to make sure they have access to those resources and have access to some of the resources we've been posting for our members about how best to navigate COVID-19 COVID-19 impact on business. So I said all that to say you don't have to be a member but if you become a member, you'll be more vested in our community. You'll have more opportunity to connect with others in our community. For example, we do have a message board, community online community. There's lots of great ideas that get passed around on those message boards, you do have to be a member to be able to access the message boards. We do have a weekly newsletter, a newsletter that goes out that's just chock full of information and resources, you do have to be a member to get access to that as well. We have discounts that you could as an as a manufacturer or an inventor, we have discounts that you can offer to retailers. There's a an area of our message board that's for discounts and promotions, and introductions of new products. You do have to be a member to be able to post there and you do have to be a member for our retailers to to hear about those promotions and discounts that you're offering. The biggest thing I would say though, as a member of ours Being being bested, being engaged with our community and really hearing and listening to our retailers getting a better understanding of their challenges of what they're looking for, of where you might be able to help them. It's almost like as a manufacturer or an inventor, you want to come in and listen and get that sense of who, who's doing what, where, when. Kind of get a better understanding of how the business works before you try to get your product in front of someone before you try to inspire someone to buy.
Azhelle 15:38
Could you clarify what that looks like? For someone that's not a member and they're not a part of it? Is it the place in which your retailers share their wants their needs their issues? for someone to learn from? What does that look like? Is that just like a message board like a almost like a blog post, or how is that organized? So what's that, like ?
Kimberly 16:00
All of the above. So once you become a member, you'll have access to that online community I was telling you about the message boards. So you'll be listening in there, you'll be getting the magazine, the magazine comes out quarterly. So you'll be getting the magazine, you'll get a sense of what kind of advertisements are there, what kind of articles appear you'll kind of hear about some of the challenges in through through reading the magazine, you'll be getting that weekly news e newsletter. And you'll once again, that's more shorter bits of content. But again, you'll be getting more exposure to some of the challenges and some of the some of the things that the community is talking about. We also have are, in addition to our annual meeting in June, which you would participate in that you get to know folks that way. But we also have regional groups now where you can connect with others in your region. Well, that's another opportunity to get to know people get to know what their challenges are. Get to know what they're Looking for all of these things feed into your knowledge of the community and make you better at providing the very best. Oh, and education.
Azhelle 17:10
I was gonna say that was gonna be my next point. I know education is like the biggest part of the membership. Exactly.
Kimberly 17:16
I forgot about that. But yes, we do have an online education, just in time knowledge. If you're facing a challenge, you can go to the webinar, repository of webinars and find perhaps a webinar that's a perfect fit for the challenge that you're facing. We have that online education available to our members for free. In addition to that, we also have two certifications. We have a certified play expert certification, which is the science behind play, how play impacts the brain, you know, the, the hormones that are released when you play, how play influences child development, it helps them be more creative. It helps them with Communication it helps them with problem solving and that sort of thing. Having that knowledge and getting that certification influences your product development as a manufacturer or as an inventor, it helps you gain a better understanding of any modifications you might want to make to your product or, or new products that you might want to add to your line. We also have certified master retailer certification program. That is the the business of running a toy store. Through that certification, we've been able to help folks that didn't necessarily go to college to learn how to run a toy store. They're able to get some of the technical knowledge that they need to supplement the knowledge that they already have as an entrepreneur to run a store successfully. Well, we found sales reps and manufacturers also are interested in taking that certification because it helps them gain a better understanding The challenges that the toy store owners are facing.
Azhelle 19:03
Right? And all of that free included with your membership
Kimberly 19:07
The certifications or not. There is a okay charge for that. But the webinars are part of your membership.
Azhelle 19:15
So as you're saying a big part of the Astra membership is education. I just want to make it really clear to everyone listening that that education component is called the Astra Academy. And that makes up online components, like you were saying the webinars and the certifications. But I'm curious to know when you know, pre COVID and hopefully post COVID what are the imperson components of this academy?
Kimberly 19:42
So for the certifications, we offer them as both an online option or a workshop option. So the workshops are offered face to face workshops are offered two, sometimes three times a year at least once While we're at marketplace Academy, it's a pre conference workshop. We also offer it in September at wherever our board meeting is going to be. And one other time, it kind of just depends on what's going on with the year.
Azhelle 20:19
So, as with any membership organization, you know, communities key. And I've read that there are networking opportunities to support Astro, both online and offline. So you've talked about the online opportunities for networking, but I would love to talk a little bit more about the offline opportunities for networking.
Kimberly 20:38
So the regional meetings, this is something relatively new, okay. It's an opportunity for folks in the same region to get together, they will, they usually host some kind of education or social or both, and they meet at least three times a year. So it's an opportunity for you to connect with colleagues that are They're in your area, folks that you probably know, but just don't get a chance to touch base with often enough. No, it's an opportunity to have a presenter come in, give some education, and then maybe have pizza. We've had groups that have gotten together at pizza and beer, or dinner or you know, just to be able to socialize and again, do some of that networking.
Azhelle 21:26
Now, I know a big part of Astros mission is also not just to help people in the toy industry, but it's also to help parents looking for toys for their kids. And I would love for you to talk about that because I know there's a lot of weight held in a parent's mind when they know that a store is an Astra member and I think it'd be great for my listeners to hear why that why Astra is held in such high regard with parents what is it that you do to promote that?
Kimberly 21:54
So that is going back to what I was saying before about that expertise. So if I'm My toy store owner and I'm feet on the floor. I'm knowledgeable about my product. As a parent, sometimes as you're looking at a product, you're not sure if it's a good fit, yeah, is it something that's appropriate for my child for their age group or for their skill set, and the toy store owners and the staff that work there, they can help you with that, because they're knowledgeable about those products. And it's not just about the sale, it really is. They really do care about the kiddos in their communities. And they're trying to make sure that they're serving them. So you can get that expertise. Sometimes it might be a technology kind of toy or game. And I know parents are, they're being a little careful about too much screen time or time. So that's something that you can talk to those toy store owners, they can give you some good feedback about. This is appropriate maybe as appropriate for a child of that age. However, maybe limited to two hours a day or four hours a day, you know that you can have that kind of conversation Some parents might be a little. Maybe they're not so tech savvy themselves. They want the toy store owner to help them understand exactly how does this toy or game work before they give it to the child play with. So that toy store owner can help with that as well. The other thing is, many of our toy store owners have taken the CPE certification, the certified play expert certification, so they have knowledge about how play impacts good child development and they can share that kind of information with parents and grandparents and caregivers. So that's great information for parents to make to have when they're making decisions about play time on structured play time. What kind of games and toys are we going to incorporate into play time, etc.
Azhelle 23:53
I also read on your site that you you typically hold neighborhood toy store days, which I think is would be really interesting to some of the listeners of this podcast because some people might have a toy idea that they think oh, it would be great if people get to test it out. So I'm curious to know about those neighborhood toy store days and how often they normally occur. I know this year's a different year, but how often they normally occur and and how does somebody get on the list to have their toy featured on a neighborhood toy store day.
Kimberly 24:27
So neighborhood toy store day is annually. It's usually in November. And like you said, this year is a very different year, so might look different this year. But neighborhood toy store Day is a celebration. It's a time for the retailer to open their doors to the community. They usually host different kinds of events at their store or in conjunction with another organization. I know that, for example, one of our toy stores does an event with their local museum, local Children's Museum. So it's it's a celebration And it's a time for play. It is everything that you can think of So, face painting, or bloon animals or putting together a kit or playing a game. So just a lot of fun. different stores, of course, because different stores have different footprints, some have larger footprints than others. So it just kind of depends on the store, what kind of events they're going to be having that day, but it's across the country, and North America, all of North America, because it includes Canada. So it's a great, fun day. It's in November, just before Small Business Saturday, so it becomes sort of the kickoff to fourth quarter holiday buying season. It's an opportunity for parents to come in. See their kids may be interacting with different toys and games and then make notes mental note they like that. Right we come back and do some shopping later. When the kiddos are not with them, but that's another one of the advantages of shopping at your specialty at having specialty toy store, local toy store. And that is that for the kids to be able to interact with products, it is at a local toy store more more likely that a toy store owner is going to unbox it, they're going to take it out of the package, they're going to let the kid actually handle it or let the mom and dad handle it and kind of get a feel for how to play with it before you walk out the door. That usually won't happen in big box. In mass market. If it happens, they probably aren't very happy that you did it.
Azhelle 26:43
Right. They're gonna get you to pay for it.
Kimberly 26:45
Exactly. But at a local neighborhood toy store, they're encouraging that they've got product for, for the kiddos to interact with and that gives mom and dad a good sense of Yes, my child will know how to play with this. This is is going to be something that they'll enjoy.
Azhelle 27:02
And I also know that you will Astra is known for their best toy awardsevery year. And I think I mean, I you know, as someone in the toy industry develops toys, I think it's, you feel extra special when your toy is selected as a part of like the Astro toy awards, because it is seen as a little bit, you know more, it's more specialty, it's seen as a little bit more higher end, if you make a product that gets even nominated in these categories. I think parents and even other toy companies, look at your toys and your brands in a different light.
Kimberly 27:37
Yeah, I totally agree. And one of the nice things about our award program is that there's a very level playing field, you know, for some of the award programs you have to pay to play. You have to pay to be a part of the award program. Yeah, we don't have that we don't require manufacturers to pay anything to be to have their product as a submission. So Even if you're a very small manufacturer, your product can be submitted to be assessed. The other thing that's pretty cool I think about our program is that the assessee is done by retailers, those same retailers that are feet on the floor and know their product. And you know what works. They pick the finalists, they pick the finalists, so that that I think for manufacturers that have won, it really holds a special place for them because they know that it's toy store owners that have said yeah, great product.
Azhelle 28:31
Well, that's also extra validation. So when you go to pitch to the next big toy store, you you you get to say this was astronomic, which holds weight because it's not just a popularity contest. It's a contest of what retailers believe they'll be able to sell.
Kimberly 28:47
Yep. And they believe it is a quality product.
Azhelle 28:51
And I'm curious when they're voting on these items, are they looking at everything like are they looking at the sample? Are they looking at the price point are they looking at the packaging
Kimberly 29:00
Everything, everything, all of everything that you just said they're looking at the packaging, they're looking at the price point, they're looking at how well it's sold. They're looking at the quality, you know, did it hold up? Well, they're looking at how the child interact, how they saw children interacting with it in the store. They're looking at everything.
Azhelle 29:19
Can you submit toys that have not been purchased yet? Maybe it's like your first time at Astra with a specific toy. Can you submit that toy? for this award?
Kimberly 29:30
Yes, the rule is though, that it has to be in has to have been produced. It can't be a prototype.
Azhelle 29:37
Oh, okay. Yeah. So you have to have at least one order small order.
Kimberly 29:42
We have it has to have been produced. Right? Right. So it has to be available. Because truly once we have those final winners of the best toys for kids awards, the next thing we do it get that get the word out to our retailers and they start looking looking at those products for purchase for fourth quarter.
Azhelle 30:01
Yeah, that was my next question when the winners are announced what kind of press you send out.
Kimberly 30:06
That's our next order of business. We get press out, we get press releases out to all the trade media, letting them know who the best choice for kids winners are. We also have public facing media that we get out as far and wide as we can. And we've had some great impressions. So we've had print media, we've had TV, we've had radio with podcasts, and we've done pretty well. The word out.
Azhelle 30:35
That's great. Okay. All right. Let's get down to what everybody's wondering. Because now that we've said all these great things about how wonderful you know, the Astro marketplace, which is the Toy Show is and how all great how great all of these in person events were. Let's address what is gonna happen the rest of this year because of the coronavirus pandemic and What are the plans for next year? I know that the show that's normally held in June is was announced cancelled as of I think it was April 1. Did you put something virtual in its place?
Kimberly 31:14
So we're working on that now. Okay, what what what we're going to do is provide our community with an opportunity to get together virtually using different platforms, including zoom. And we're calling it camp Astra. Oh, yeah, it's going to be themed as Astro summer camp will have camp counselors will have some social events that are branded with the with the camp theme. So you might be attending a fireside chat or you're a you know, bring your bottle of wine to the fireside.
Azhelle 31:52
Is it gonna be zoom? Some of it will be zoom. Yeah, you know what you gotta do? You gotta give people like a background to download so that everybody can have like a camp theme background or something so fun. Yeah.
Kimberly 32:08
Yes, we thought about that we've even done any t shirts to folks. Yeah, wear their t shirt. So yes, we're putting that together now. So we've gotten a lot of great ideas. And Astro so lucky. We've got just really smart and passionate leadership in our board and amongst our members, we've got volunteers working on this too, that are just full of ideas and very excited and very passionate about Astro summer camp. So we're really looking forward to putting it together and providing an opportunity for our community to get together in a more fun or more creative kind of way, not just about you know, having a virtual something is really about helping our folks connect with one another virtually even though we Because we didn't really have an opportunity to connect face to face,
Azhelle 33:03
Right. And is there an extra cost for the summer camp? Or is that just included with your membership?
Kimberly 33:09
So we're we don't know yet we're kind of getting all of the ducks in a row, if you will getting all the details in place. So we're, we're working hard to get that all finalized. And, and hopefully we're going to have that in place within the next couple of weeks and you'll see some announcements going out.
Azhelle 33:28
Oh, great. Do you have any idea when it might begin? But last week of July, 1 week of August, okay, great. And what's gonna be I know you said the main goal is just to get your group together to room and have fun, but is there any is there going to be a focus on education or will there be a focus on maybe placing orders or presenting new product or things like that?
Kimberly 33:52
All three, oh, it's gonna be a focus on connection. Okay, the social events you know, the fireside chats. etc, there's going to be a focus on education. So there's opportunities for you to be a part of a zoom event where there's a presenter and you're listening in. And at the end, you got opportunity for QA. Or it might be an opportunity where you can just listen in to a webinar for education. And then there's going to be connecting for exhibitors. So there's going to be opportunities for you to see perhaps a video of some new products that are available or maybe evergreen products that you order every time you want to make sure you're aware of an opportunity for you to connect with exhibitors through zoom and other kinds of platforms. That's great.
Azhelle 34:44
I can't I can't wait. I think I'm gonna join just to go to Astra camp.
Kimberly 34:51
To have you Yeah, please join Astro camp.
Azhelle 34:56
know when we first talked like oh man, it feels like like six months ago, but I think it was just last month. You were talking about the 2021 show. So I know you're trying to reimagine what that could be like, and I'm just wondering if you have any, any updates on what you guys are thinking you might do for next year?
Kimberly 35:21
Well, we do know it's going to be in Minneapolis and we're excited to be in the apalis. We have a strong, lots of strong leadership there in Minneapolis. We've got two board members, actually two board leaders that are a part of the Minneapolis region. So we're looking forward to being in Minneapolis, we are expecting that we're going to have an opportunity to reconnect while we're there in Minneapolis. You know, we know that our show is a really important part of, of our community of our industry. We know that folks really missed their opportunity to connect face to face and I'm really looking forward to being able to To provide that opportunity for folks, next year, it's not just about selling product or just about buying product. It really is about the relationships that exist in our community. And we really hope that we're going to be able to, well, we know we're going to be able to facilitate that by this time next year.
Azhelle 36:18
And are you going to accept new exhibitors into the show next year? Are you just rolling in the exhibitors from this year to next year?
Kimberly 36:25
Both we have some exhibitors that have committed already that they will be there next year with us. That's great. And of course, we are going to be looking for additional exhibitors to join them at our show next year. So yes, we are definitely our doors are open. We're looking for new exhibitors, of course, because as I said before, our retailers are looking for new products.
Azhelle 36:47
Yeah, this is great. This has been a great conversation. I've learned things about Astra that I didn't know about you know, but yeah, no I I'm just impressed with how much Astra has to offer. It's It seems like it's a nice big community.
Kimberly 37:02
Mm hmm. It is. It's a great community. And one of the things that we've found, and we expected it is in light of COVID-19, and us needing to cancel the show. Truly people understood we got a lot of support from our membership, like, hang in there. We're all in this together. We're mighty together. We noticed a tough time. You know, we were saying that to them. And then after we canceled the show, they were saying to us, like, hang in there. Like, I know, Oh, my God. It's a crazy time. I think it's tough for everyone. You know, we're all in this together. But it really is when you're facing those uncertainties. Yeah, I think that's the time when you really do need to collaborate with others. It really is by sharing I'm, I'm anxious. Are you anxious, you're anxious to Okay, let's Be anxious to get right. Both of us feel a little better, right? Yes, yeah, no. Yeah, yeah, you get that support and you know, you, you know, it's gonna be crazy. And there's a lot of uncertainty but you don't feel like you're walking alone. So it does help. That's great.
Azhelle 38:18
As a final, one final message to inventors and toy creators, what would you say just a piece of advice when creating something for the specialty market, maybe something that they should pay attention to?
Kimberly 38:34
So I would go back to the two sides of the coin. I would say that, yes, when you're dealing with toy store, locally owned and independently operated toy stores when you're dealing with specialty toy stores. It is more work because it's a large number of small orders instead of one big order, right? But there's also there's also state In a large number of small orders, because you can learn from all of that exposure grow from all of that exposure, really get your product mind solid, based on that feedback before you take that next step, which might be mass market or online or ramping up your online. The other thing I would say is, don't forget about your specialty people, even if you are focused on mass market sales or online sales, find the perfect niche for specialty and what I've seen is there are manufacturers that will have one set of skews that are for mass and a whole different set of skews that are for specialty, yes, or perhaps you've got product that you've grown on the specialty side, you leave that on the specialty side, and then you pick up a different product line to try to grow on the mass side. Online. So don't forget about your specially people. They are loyal people, they will stick by you as long as you stick by them.
Azhelle 40:07
Oh, that's great advice. Yes. Okay. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Kimberly 40:13
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Azhelle 40:16
Okay, toy people. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Kimberly Mosley and you found it extremely valuable. And if you have a toy or game product that could fall in the specialty toy category, and you are not a member of Astra, what are you waiting for? And if you aren't yet a member of Astra I have got a very special offer to tell you about. Kim was so gracious to offer the listeners of wit three months off of an annual membership. Now all you have to do to get that membership is go to the toy coach comm forward slash 24 and you're going to see a bright yellow button right at the top of that page. You hit that button and you are going to send an email to the people at Astra letting them know that the toy coach sent you. And they'll respond with all the information you need to get your three months off an annual membership. And again, as always, thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. It means a lot to me when you stop in and you spend some time with me and learn a little bit about the toy industry. Now I want to remind you to head over to the thetoycoach.com And go all the way down to the bottom of the page and find that button that says podcast topic suggestions. Now I've already gotten a ton of suggestions and I want you guys to know that I am working through them. I've got some really exciting interviews and podcasts solo episodes coming up that I know you're going to love. But if you have any ideas, I want you to know that I'm listening and I'm excited to help you and answer any questions that I can and get my hands on the important People that you want to talk to and you want to hear from. So make sure you go to thetoycoach.com to write me a message and send me your podcast topic suggestions. If you haven't already done so, make sure you leave us a rating and a review. It's going to help other inventors and entrepreneurs like yourself, find this podcast and honestly, I really enjoy reading the reviews. So make sure you go over to iTunes and do that. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
Intro/Outro + Jingle 42:33
Thanks for listening to Making It in The Toy Industry podcast with Azhelle Wade, head over to thetoycoach.com For more information, tips and advice.
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🎓Learn more about how you can develop and pitch your toy idea with Toy Creators Academy® by clicking here to visit toycreatorsacademy.com and join the waitlist.